Roddick's sluggish ways

By Alix Ramsay in Basle

12:01AM BST 24 Oct 2003

In between matches at the ATP tournament here, Andy Roddick reckons that the three-man chase between himself, Roger Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero to end the season as world No 1 is an exciting little competition.

Alas, when it comes to the business of playing the matches, Roddick shows all the enthusiasm of a bored schoolboy.

If he felt his first-round match with Jean-Claude Scherrer was "spotty", his second-round 6-3, 7-6 win over Gilles Elseneer, of Belgium, looked like a bad case of chicken-pox. Not that that was entirely Roddick's fault, mind you.

Not hugely happy with his ground strokes, Roddick was, nevertheless, keeping his nose in front as the first set began. And then the lights went out. After 30 minutes of watching men with spanners sort out the mess, he was allowed back to work and was able to see Elseneer fall apart. At which point the lights in the press room went out.

Just as it seemed that the US Open champion had got everything under control at last, he lost interest and found himself a break down - and then the lights went out again.